I love winter! As a Colorado native, winter played a major role in most of my memories: learning to ski on a rope tow, sledding 2 miles down a country lane and being pulled to the top behind a truck, building giant snow men with large carrot noses, stuffing cold snowballs down friends' jackets, meeting my husband in Telluride with dollar sized snowflakes falling on our eyelashes and noses, skipping Christmas gift giving to take winter ski vacations, turning our pajamas inside out praying for snow days and teaching our kids (and thousands of strangers) how to ski, ....Yes, I love winter.
As a matter of fact, I've never missed a year of skiing since I turned 6, until this year. Therefore, thank goodness for the Sochi Winter Olympics. The Olympics are NOT the next best thing to being there, but there are better than nothing. Starting last Thursday, we've adopted while flipping through all four channels (all titled Olympic Broadcast Network) to find which event we are going to enjoy for the night.
Watching the Olympics in Malaysia is different from the United States for the following reasons:
1. There are no commercials during the events. We see all competitors complete an event. Then we sit and watch the screen with the athletes while they wait for the judges to post their scores - no commercial breaks. In the case of some events like Snowboard Slopeslide (which I loved, by the way) , the long wait for scores it worth it to see Americans win gold for both men and women.
2. There are no "human interest" stories. We have no idea which athletes had extraordinary emotional or physical struggles to get where they are today. We just see straight up competition - nerves, disqualifications, close races, lucky wins, etc.
3. There are no set schedules so each upcoming event is a surprise. The video guide for the channels is unreliable. Even if the guide says there will be Alpine Slalom at 19:45, it doesn't necessarily there will be anything showing let alone Olympics. On the plus side, we get to watch the opening ceremony again...and again...and again...
4. There are new sports idioms to master. Because the announcer is probably British, he has a very different style and uses many new phrases. Either I don't hear well, or he just makes a lot of mistakes an announces the wrong winners, so I don't trust the results until I see the athletes on the podium for the flower ceremony. (What is this "flower ceremony" anyway. Where are the medals? We haven't seen a medal ceremony yet.)
Watching the Olympics in Malaysia is interesting for the following reasons:
1. This country has no winter.
2. This country has no Winter Olympic team.
3. I don't know anyone else who is watching the Olympics.
4. It feels like I could fry an egg on the sidewalk outside so it's hard to imagine needing warm clothes or walking on snow.
4. I motivated to work on my ski technique, drink a beer in a ski lodge after making some good turns, and buy some new cute ski poles with neon green handles but there is no place to go for "winter."
Watching the Olympics in Malaysia is great for the following reason:
I'm NOT cold. Watching those Olympic slalom racers unbuckle their Lange boots as soon as they hit the bottom of the hill, I'm reminded that I unbuckle every run, too, hoping to warm up my feet. Sitting here on my couch, I'm thinking, "It's nice to be warm!"
As a matter of fact, I've never missed a year of skiing since I turned 6, until this year. Therefore, thank goodness for the Sochi Winter Olympics. The Olympics are NOT the next best thing to being there, but there are better than nothing. Starting last Thursday, we've adopted while flipping through all four channels (all titled Olympic Broadcast Network) to find which event we are going to enjoy for the night.
Watching the Olympics in Malaysia is different from the United States for the following reasons:
1. There are no commercials during the events. We see all competitors complete an event. Then we sit and watch the screen with the athletes while they wait for the judges to post their scores - no commercial breaks. In the case of some events like Snowboard Slopeslide (which I loved, by the way) , the long wait for scores it worth it to see Americans win gold for both men and women.
2. There are no "human interest" stories. We have no idea which athletes had extraordinary emotional or physical struggles to get where they are today. We just see straight up competition - nerves, disqualifications, close races, lucky wins, etc.
3. There are no set schedules so each upcoming event is a surprise. The video guide for the channels is unreliable. Even if the guide says there will be Alpine Slalom at 19:45, it doesn't necessarily there will be anything showing let alone Olympics. On the plus side, we get to watch the opening ceremony again...and again...and again...
4. There are new sports idioms to master. Because the announcer is probably British, he has a very different style and uses many new phrases. Either I don't hear well, or he just makes a lot of mistakes an announces the wrong winners, so I don't trust the results until I see the athletes on the podium for the flower ceremony. (What is this "flower ceremony" anyway. Where are the medals? We haven't seen a medal ceremony yet.)
Watching the Olympics in Malaysia is interesting for the following reasons:
1. This country has no winter.
2. This country has no Winter Olympic team.
3. I don't know anyone else who is watching the Olympics.
4. It feels like I could fry an egg on the sidewalk outside so it's hard to imagine needing warm clothes or walking on snow.
4. I motivated to work on my ski technique, drink a beer in a ski lodge after making some good turns, and buy some new cute ski poles with neon green handles but there is no place to go for "winter."
Watching the Olympics in Malaysia is great for the following reason:
I'm NOT cold. Watching those Olympic slalom racers unbuckle their Lange boots as soon as they hit the bottom of the hill, I'm reminded that I unbuckle every run, too, hoping to warm up my feet. Sitting here on my couch, I'm thinking, "It's nice to be warm!"
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